Lee Stokes v. Dexter Payne

Summary

The court affirmed the denial and dismissal of Stokes's habeas petition challenging his mandatory sentence of life imprisonment without parole for a capital murder committed at age nineteen. It held that the constitutional rule concerning mandatory life-without-parole sentences for juveniles does not make Stokes's adult sentence illegal on its face, and therefore his claim was not cognizable in habeas proceedings. The court also declined to consider case-specific childhood and IQ arguments raised for the first time on appeal.